Reality Check
by mirror in the sky
Summary: Quinn and Kitty meet.


New Year, New Quinn. High school is over and now I'm a freshman at Yale. Yale! My dream school since I was eight years old. When I was just a toddler my mother hung up a Yale poster in my nursery and read me her senior yearbook every night before I drifted off into a peaceful slumber. You probably think she's insane or I'm insane, but really my mother was just encouraging a young Lucy Quinn Fabray to be the best of the best! And she had that right. My mom and dad met at Yale where they were both majoring in the same thing. Neither of them will tell me what that major was now because my mom lives off of spousal support and my dad is a closet drunk. But when they first saw each other at that hallway pajama party, they knew they were in love.

And that Yale is freakin awesome!

So when I got accepted to Yale I immediately started buying Yale merchandise online. I didn't have to buy much, though. My mother kept all of her t-shirts and sweat pants which were outdated by about twenty years. She even kept her old cheerleading uniform. Undetermined if that is allowed. My mom wanted me to be a cheerleader. I was a little skeptical about that since my accident. I could walk, but I walked like Ariel from The Little Mermaid and danced like "I was getting my prostate checked" as Santana put it.

"Isn't this uniform just darling? All the boys on the team are going to want to make you theirs. Just don't go for the water boy. Or the mascot. There's always some dogface under the suit." My mom had said, taking a sip of whine.

"I don't know if I want to cheer. I want to be more than Cheerleader, High-pony Fabray." I shook my head.

"Well honey, they don't wear high-ponies in high school." My mother said, ignoring everything I said. As always.

My first week of Yale was amazing. My roommate was really nice, there were cute boys everywhere, and the classes were already going great. I ended up joining the cheerleading squad. I took the last spot that my roommate wanted and she slapped me in front of everyone at the food court. I knew that it was Karma for slapping Rachel junior year so I shrugged it off and put a bag of frozen peas on my face as I studied that night in the library.

When Mr. Schuester called me halfway through first semester asking me to come and mentor the new kids I was a little skeptical. Why didn't he just ask Rachel or Mercedes? He appreciated their talent more than mine and that's why I always kind of a bitch in there. But then he said that everyone else was coming back as well and I said yes right away. It would be nice to see all my friends. I missed them. Even Berry.

Sectionals was coming up for the New Directions and Mr. Schue wanted us to put on a killer number to motivate the newbies and show them how to put on a proper glee club performance. Being back in Lima would be weird and was when I stepped off of the plane with Mike and Mercedes. It was a lot quieter than I remembered. My roommate was right when she called Lima a "One horse town." I thought that once I was back I would realize how much I missed my hometown, but all I realized was that I wanted to get back on that plane.

Being back at McKinley was weird. I felt like one of those jocks who came back to say hi to their old teachers and overstayed their welcome. I had definitely out grown this place. And maybe it had out grown me as well. Apparently the others didn't feel the same. They were all hugging and crying and going back to see their old teachers and talk to the freshmen who now owned their lockers. I just smiled and hugged everyone, wishing I was back in my dorm room with Starbucks and a good book.

We had just finished rehearsing Eye Of The Tiger, the song that we would be performing for the new kids. I was walking down the hall when I froze. It was like déjà vu. She was in a cheerios uniform with a high pony that would make any girl jealous. It had to be Kitty, the girl that had been picking on Marley and Brittany. Sue's new "Head bitch." My mini-me. The scene took me back to the first time I slushied Rachel freshmen year.

"_Hi Rachel, how's your first day of school going?" I walked up to Rachel with a slushy behind my back and Brittany and Santana by my side._

"_Great, actually. I'm in all AP classes like I wanted. Oh, and congratulations. I heard you're the new head cheerio." Rachel smiled shyly. Even then she was afraid of me._

"_Congrats your way, too. I heard you're in New Directions now." I put on my best fake smile._

"_Yes! Thank you. We have a lot of work to do, but I'm sure we'll be National champs in no time." Rachel said proudly._

"_All that singing must make you thirsty, huh?" Santana said._

"_Yeah, I guess…." Rachel said with uncertainty. _

_Then I slung the slushy in her face._

"Cherry. Jake told me it's your favorite." Kitty said after she tossed the slushy in Marley's face. Formerly, she spun around and walked away, making eye contact with me for a moment before looking straight ahead like she was the only girl in the hall. She was me. Or wanted to be me, anyway.

She needed a reality check. I know I needed one at her age. And I did. I'm just not sure if it was my fight with Santana, getting pregnant, being hit by a truck, or getting accepted to Yale. Thankfully Kitty wouldn't need that to happen for her to change. High school wouldn't last forever. She needed to realize that. And I knew how to make it clear.

Kitty was standing at her locker looking in her mirror when I approached her. "I was you, once." I said.

"Excuse me?" She asked.

"The uniform. The high pony. The popularity. I ruled this school."

"Yeah, well you're old news now. Along with the rest of the No Directions." Kitty turned away from me and started applying lipstick.

"When you graduate, people are going to forget about you too, Kitty. A new blonde girl with a high pony and ice in her veins will come and you will be yesterday's news." I assured her.

"No. That won't happen." Kitty giggled scenically. "People love me. And by the time I graduate, I'll be a legend at this school."

"Wow, you really are as naïve as I was." I shook my head. "High school is not forever. Like you, I thought it would be. But it's not. Soon you'll be graduating. And all the girls you made fun of and the boys you thought you loved will all be a thing of the past."

"Is that why you're walking the halls a year after your graduation?" Kitty snapped.

"I'm just saying that high school isn't everything. I can't wait to get on that plane back to Yale. I can't wait to see what the world has waiting for me."

"Whatever." Kitty rolled her eyes.

"Oh, and stop picking on Brittany and Marley." I said.

"Or what?" Kitty slammed her locker shut.

"Or I will go all Lima Heights on your ass. I hope you have nine lives, _Kitty._" Santana said, walking up to us.

Kitty looked at Santana, then back at me.

"So, what? You want me to apologize to Marley and Brittany?" She asked.

"Yes. And I want you to remember that high school isn't everything and stop being mean to everyone." I said.

"Quinn and I were the top bitches at this school. We were cruel to everyone. But we changed. Well, Q changed." Santana snickered.

"And you can change, too."

"Maybe I don't want to change." Kitty crossed her arms.

"You don't have too. But because I changed, I got into my dream school and made some of my best friends." I smiled.

"You don't know me, Quinn Fabray. You don't know my story. I'm not like you. And I don't need your rags to riches story. This _intervention_ is over." Kitty rolled her eyes and walked away.

"Can I hit her?" Santana asked through gritted teeth.

"No." I shook my head. "She'll learn. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow. But one day she will."

"Let's go. This place still sucks." Santana said wryly.

"I'll meet you in the choir room. I have to use the bathroom." Santana nodded and I headed toward the bathroom. I started to open the door when I heard Kitty talking.

"I'm sorry for the slushy facial, Marley. It was wrong and immature." She said sincerely.

"Um….thanks?" Marley said, scrubbing vigorously at her stained sweater.

"How about we go to the mall and I buy you a new sweater at J. Crew." Kitty smiled.

"Wow, thanks!"

I thought that I hadn't gotten through to her. But I did. I think the school was about to meet a new Kitty.

.


End file.
